Shirt collar



Sept. 8, 1953 R. w. M CREERY 2,651,043

SHIRT COLLAR Filed Jan. 18, 1952 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG. 3.

BY W 3 A TToRA/EYS.

ept. 8, 1953 R. w. MCCRIEERY SHIRT COLLAR 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Jan.18, 1952 FIG. 9.

' INVENTOR. ROBERT W. MLREFRY A TT RNEY$ Patented Sept. 8, 1953 UNITEDSTATES PATENT OFFICE SHIRT COLLAR Robert W. McCreery, Port Washington,N. Y., as-

signor to Phillips-Jones Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation ofNew York Application January 18, 1952, Serial No. 267,069

1 Claim. 1

My invention relates to a new and improved foldable shirt-collar whichis especially adapted for sport shirts.

The invention relates to a collar which, when folded, has a toplongitudinal seamless fold-line, along which at least some of the fabriclayers of the collar are bent downwardly to provide a neckband and anouter top or face-band. This type of collar is known in the trade as aone-piece collar, even though it is made of a plurality of layers offabric, because the neck-band and the top or face-band have layers whichare integral at said top seamless longitudinal fold-line.

In distinction, a collar which comprises a neckband and a top orface-band which are originally made separately, and which aresubsequently sewed to each other along the top line of the collar, isdesignated as a two-piece collar. Such two-piece collars are illustratedin U. S. Patent No. 1,829,939, dated November 3, 1931 and No. 1,897,486,dated February 14, 1933.

The one-piece collar is used extensively on sport shirts which can beworn open at the neck.

As hitherto made, it has been difiicult to provide a proper toplongitudinal fold-line in a onepiece collar. Such collars are made andironed in the flat condition. When it is attempted to bend the collararound the neck, the collar wrinkles and forms irregular pleats at itstop longitudinal fold-line, which injures the appearance of the collarand makes it uncomfortable.

There is no natural top longitudinal fold-line in prior one-pieceshirt-collars, and it is necessary to guess at the proper line oflongitudinal fold.

According to the preferred embodiment of my invention, to which theinvention is not limited, I provide a one-piece collar which is made offive layers of fabric. These five layers include an outer facelayer andan inner face-layer, which are folded along the top, longitudinalfold-line of the collar and which have panels which are located both inthe neck-band and in the top.

There is also a main inner layer which is folded along said toplongitudinal fold-line. Said main inner layer is located inwardly ofsaid face-layers, and has panels in both the neck-band and top.

There is also a rear or neck-band reinforcing layer, which is locatedwholly in the neck-band and which is not folded at said longitudinalfoldline. This is located directly adjacent the rear or neck-band panelof the main inner layer and between the main inner layer and the outerface layer.

There is also a face-band reinforcing layer,

2 which is located wholly in the face-band, and which is not folded atsaid longitudinal fold-line.

This face-band reinforcing layer is located directly adjacent the frontpanel of said main inner layer and between the main inner layer and theouter face-layer.

The outer face-layer is folded at the top of the collar to provide 'arear panel which is located outwardly of and directly adjacent said rearreinforcing layer; and to provide a front panel which is locatedoutwardly of and directly adjacent said front reinforcing layer.

These front and rear reinforcing layers are sewed to the main innerlayer, with the adjacent longitudinal edges of said reinforcing layersspaced transversely from each other, in order to provide a longitudinalfold-zone.

Numerous other objects and elements of my invention are disclosed in theannexed description and drawings, which illustrate a preferredembodiment of my invention.

Fig. l is a top plan view which shows the five layers or pieces offabric from which the colla is made;

Fig. 2 is a top plan view, which shows the front and rear reinforcingpieces or layers initially sewed to the main inner layer by curved1ongitudinal lines of stitches at the adjacent longitudinal edges ofsaid reinforcing pieces or layers;

Fig. 3 is a section on the line 33 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 4 is a plan view, which shows how the two face pieces or layers arestitched to the three pieces or layers of Fig. 2, in order to provide aturnable collar-form;

Fig. 5 is a section on the line 5-5 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a plan view of said collar-form of Figs. 4 and 5, after saidcollar-form has been turned;

Fig. '7 is a section on the line 'l--! of Fig. 6;

Fig. 8 is a perspective view which shows the turned collar-form of Figs.6 and '7, folded along the longitudinal fold-line of the collar; and

Fig. 9 is a section on the line 99 of Fig. 8.

Figs. 1, 2, 4 and 6 are substantially to the same scale and theyaccurately show the shapes and proportion of the parts.

The main inner layer or piece I, which is folded as shown in Fig. 9 toprovide a front panel and a rear panel, has a top longitudinal convexedge Id, a bottom longitudinal edge to which has the double curvatureshown in Fig. 1, straight sideedges la and lb which are upwardlyinclined towards each other, top corners I e and If, and bottom bluntedcorners Ia and Ih.

Said main inner layer l is made of soft and flexible material. As oneexample, this may be a woven cotton lawn fabric. Such lawn fabric, whenjust off the loom, woven in a width of 40 inches, has 6.90 yards perpound of cotton. As one practical working example, the length of thelongitudinal straight line between top corners Ia and If has a length of15.5 inches, and the height of main inner piece I is four inches at itsvertical median line.

The front and rear reinforcing pieces or layers 3 and 2 are made, as oneexample, of woven cotton lining fabric. Such lining fabric, in a widthof 38 inches, has a weight of one pound per three yards.

Front reinforcing layer 3 has'a toplongitudinal 1 concave edge 3a, topcorners 3g and 3h, abottom double-curvature longitudinal .edge 31),straight upwardly convergent edges 30 and 3d, andbottom blunted corners3e and 3].

Rear reinforcing layer 2 has top and bottom longitudinal convex edges 2band 2a, top corners 2g and 2h, upwardly convergent side edges 20 and 2d,and bottom corners 2e and 21.

The first operation is to assemble main inner layer I with rearreinforcing layer 2 and front reinforcing layer 3, by means of fourcurved and longitudinal rows 'of stitches II, which have the shape shownin Fig. 2. Thetop edges Id and 2b are then coincident; bottom edges Iaand 3b are then coincident; side edges Ia, 2c and 3c are thencoincident; and side edges Ib, 2d and 3d are then coincident, and thestitches 4 extend continuously between'said coincident side edges.

Fig. 2 shows some of stitches'II omitted, and parts of layers 2 and 3bent, in order to show the underneath layer I.

An intermediate longitudinal fold-zone 5, of single thickness, is thusprovided between edges 2a and 3a.

The facing layers 6 and I are made of any suitable facing fabric ormaterial.

The facing layer 6 has a top longitudinal convex edge 6d, a bottomlongitudinaldouble-curvature edge 60, and upwardly convergent side'edges6a and 6b.

The facing layer I has a top longitudinal convex edge Id, a bottomdouble-curvature longitudinal edge Ia and straight and upwardlyconvergent side edges Ia and Ib.

The facing layers are originally assembled in abutting relation "withthe three layers of the initial assembly of Fig.2, by means of sidestitches along the two side lines 8, and by bottom stitches along thesingle line 9. The representation of the stitches at the right side line8 is omitted in Fig. 4, and the representation of some of the stitchesalong line 9 is also omitted, in order to show the relation between thefive layers of Fig. 4.

These fivelayers are not stitched or otherwise connected to each otherin Fig. 4 along their four coincident-top convex edges E.

The collar-form of Fig. 4 is then turned, so that the inner layers I, 2and 3 are located between the facing layers 6 and I. The convextop'edges of the flat turned form of Fig. 7 are coincident.

The flat turned form of Figs. 6 and 7 is now folded along the medianlongitudinal line ofthe longitudinal folding-zone 5. In the foldedcollar of Figs. 8 and 9, the top edge of rear reinforcing layer 2 is itsconvex edge 2a and the top edge of front reinforcing layer 3 is itsconcave edge 3a.

The folded collar is thus provided with a top longitudinal fold which is.made of only three layers of fabric, namely,the layers I,-.6 and :I.

The flat turned form is thus folded naturally to provide a neck-band Nand a face-band or top F without any substantial puckers at thefoldzone, when the folded collar is bent to conform to the neck.

As shown in Fig. 9, the face layer 6 has a front panel which has anupwardly bent flap 670, which abuts and is directly adjacent the body ofthe front panel'of face layer '6.

The face layer I has a front panel which has an upwardly bent flap Ilc,which abuts flap 6k.

.an upwardly bent flap Ila, which abuts the body of'said'fr'ont paneland flap 3k.

Hence .the front bottom edge-portion of the face-band F of the foldedcollar has eight layers of fabric I-3-I-IIc-3k-I7c-6k-6, from the frontface of the neck-band F to its rear face. These eight layers are fixedto each other by the stitches 9 and the inwardly bent flaps Ik-3Ic-IIo-6Ic, have coincident inner or upper edges.

The bottom edge E of the neck-band N is sewed to the neck-opening of theshirt. The neck-band has four layers of fabric, and the collar has eightlayers at and adjacent the top longitudinal fold-line.

I have disclosed a preferred embodiment of my invention, but numerouschanges and omissions and additions and substitutions can be madewithout departing from its'scope.

Thus, I can omit either of the reinforcing layers 2 and 3, although theuse of both said layers is highly preferred.

The tops of reinforcing layers 2 and 3 extend substantially to the foldof the face layer I and below the fold of the collar, as shown in Fig.9. If only one reinforcing layer 2 or 3 is used, .the top of said singlereinforcing layer has the respective position which is above mentioned.

Whenever I refer to stitches, I can use equivalent fastening or fixingmeans.

The folded collar shown in Fig. 9 comprises an outer folded layer I, anintermediate folded layer I, and an inner folded layer 6. Each saidfoldable layer is continuous at the seamless top longitudinal fold ofthe collar and each said folded layer has a neck-band panel and aface-band panel. The neck-band N also includes a neckband reinforcinglayer 2, which is located intermediate the neck-band panels of the outerfolded layer I and of the intermediate folded layer I. The face-band Falso includes a face-band reinforcing layer 3 which is locatedintermediate the face-band panels of the outer folded layer I and theintermediate folded layer I. The neck-band N is of equal thickness andit consists of the neckband panels of the folded layers I, I and 6 andthe neck-band reinforcing layer 2, which abut each other in theneck-band N.

I claim:

A collar comprising an integral inner foldable layer having a neck-bandpanel portion and a face-band panel portion, an integral intermediatefoldable layerhaving aneck-band panel portion and a face-band panelportion, an integral outer foldable laye having a neck-band panelportion and a face-band panel portion constituting the visible portionof the collar when the collar is folded, a face-band reinforcing layerdisposed between the face-bandpanel portion'of said intermediate andouter foldable layers, a neck-band reinforcing layer disposed betweentheneck-bandpaneLportions of said intermediate and outer foldablelayers, each of said reinforcing layers being substantially stifier thansaid intermediate foldable layer and the adjacent edges of saidreinforcing layers being spaced apart to form a fold zone, all saidface-band panel portions and said face-band reinforcing layer havingupwardly bent bottom flaps which are fixed to each other and which arelocated between the lower part of the face-band panel of said innerlayer and the lower part of the faceband panel of said outer layer, theupwardly bent flap of said face-band reinforcing layer being disposedbetween the upwardly bent flap of said intermediate layer and theupwardly bent flap of said outer layer.

ROBERT W. McCREERY.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 1,443,932 Sonnenfeld et al. Jan. 30, 1923 2,152,093 RubensteinMar. 28, 1939 2,152,094 Rubenstein Mar. 28, 1939 2,408,570 Michael Oct.1, 1946 2,418,058 Touloumis Mar. 25, 1947 2,433,522 Lowe Dec. 30, 1947

